Hisoka is a useful ally in the Greed Island (GI) arc of HUNTER×HUNTER because, in this situation, helping Gon and his friends win fits perfectly well with looking forward to fighting a stronger Gon later. He has not suddenly become a good person. That is a reading of his actions, though, not a training philosophy he has announced.
During the dodgeball match against Razor, the dangerous magician puts in a surprising amount of work. He reads the opposition, adapts to his teammates’ aims, and keeps finding ways to win even after getting hurt. It produces an odd feeling: you would not trust his character, but you are glad he is on your team.
To explore that contradiction, let’s follow him from Heavens Arena to GI, then consider how Gon’s dramatic transformation and Hisoka’s fight with Chrollo complicate the picture. Calling him a “good mentor” is an ironic description of his usefulness in particular moments, not a character reference.
Spoiler warning: this article discusses the Heavens Arena, Greed Island, Chimera Ant, and Chairman Election arcs, as well as events through volume 34 of the manga. Episode numbers refer to the 2011 anime. Strength comparisons and ideas about Hisoka’s ideal opponent are interpretations, kept separate from established facts.
What does Hisoka actually contribute to the GI dodgeball match?
First, his cooperation is more than talk. The official synopsis for episode 69 confirms that Gon’s group joins Hisoka, Goreinu, and Tsezguerra’s team to challenge Razor again, leading into the dodgeball match. [1]
Hisoka takes powerful throws and continues playing after injuring his fingers. His injury is also mentioned in the official episode 70 synopsis. He is not simply the powerful character watching comfortably from the sidelines: he takes on a real share of what winning costs. [2]
One especially memorable moment has Gon, Killua, and Hisoka work together to stop Razor’s ball. The official episode 71 synopsis describes this three-person effort and Gon’s full-power return. At the match’s conclusion, Hisoka’s Bungee Gum rebound also helps secure victory. [3]
Hisoka also takes account of Gon’s desire to win in a way he can feel satisfied with, rather than merely scrape through. Gon’s power, Killua’s support, and Hisoka’s inventiveness fit together so well that the scene could pass for an uplifting team battle powered by friendship.
The alarming part is that, if Hisoka put “excellent team player” on a job application, this footage alone might get him through the interview. That does not mean Gon and his friends have agreed to a future fight to the death with him. Hisoka’s fixation on combat and their cooperation in the present are separate things.
Why he also looks like a mentor on the 200th floor
A similar pattern appears before GI. When Gon and Killua try to proceed onto the 200th floor without a sufficient understanding of Nen, Hisoka blocks their path with the pressure of his aura. To get past that barrier, they learn Nen’s fundamentals from Wing. The official episode 29 synopsis makes clear that Wing is the one who actually teaches them. [4]
If we arrange the results as stages in a training course, they look like this:
- Do not enter dangerous territory before you are ready
- Learn Nen to overcome the obstacle in your way
- Master the basics and move forward
- Put that growth to the test in Gon’s later match with Hisoka
That last step is a fight with Gon, not separate examinations of both Gon and Killua. The official episode 35 synopsis likewise identifies Gon as Hisoka’s challenger. [5]
Laid out this way, Hisoka looks like an experienced senior with clear requirements for advancement. But obstructing them does not automatically become an act of benevolent protection. He does not want a promising future opponent destroyed before he develops. Read that way, the apparently helpful result and the unsettling motive fit together neatly.
Bungee Gum looks like a practical lesson
Bungee Gum gives Hisoka’s aura the elasticity of rubber and the stickiness of gum. The official glossary describes an ability that can stretch and contract, attach to things, and detach. [6]
The dodgeball match shows how many jobs these simple properties can do when applied creatively.
- Attach the aura to the ball, linking it to Hisoka
- Use its stretch to respond to incoming force
- Put its contraction to work in returns and retrievals
- Shape the ball’s movement and the direction it travels back
- Turn a powerful incoming ball into material for the next attack
Crucially, this is not an ability that automatically blocks everything. Hisoka still gets injured, and Gon and Killua still have essential roles. Knowing the properties and using them well under tight constraints are different things. That gap is where experience shows.
For the audience, the result resembles a complete lesson: an explanation, a demonstration, practical applications, and a successful outcome. But the story does not establish that Hisoka formally opens a class for the two boys. We can learn from his fighting without assuming teaching was his purpose.
A capable ally is not necessarily a good teacher
Someone genuinely teaching for another person’s sake would care about more than making them stronger. Their safety and the life they lead afterward would matter too. This is where the “development coach” metaphor for Hisoka breaks down. In GI, the person who becomes the boys’ teacher and trains them is Bisky, as the official episode 63 synopsis states. [12]
If we understand Hisoka’s interest as a desire to let a future opponent develop, his pleasure in their growth makes sense. But that is different from supporting their well-being. Moments when he respects their abilities or judgment do not turn him into an adult they can safely entrust themselves to.
Heavens Arena provides an entry point to the fundamentals; GI puts abilities into practice. It is tempting to line them up as a course. Yet that is a pattern visible in hindsight, not a revealed long-term teaching plan linking the two events.
The lessons look promising, until the post-graduation prospect turns out to be a life-or-death match against the teacher. The further we take the educational metaphor, the more disturbing its purpose becomes.
Is adult Gon the finished opponent Hisoka is waiting for?
Here the comparison moves into later events. The abruptly grown form Gon takes against Pitou, often nicknamed “Gon-san,” is not Gon after an ordinary accumulation of age and experience. It is depicted as a temporary transformation driven by an extreme resolve and a terrible price, as if he were forcing his future possibilities into immediate power. This confrontation takes place in episode 131. [7]
In this form, Gon displays speed and power that overwhelm Pitou. Afterward, however, he is left critically ill, and Killua sets out to save him. The official description of manga volume 31 explicitly mentions Gon’s critical condition. This is not simply a successful training arc. [8]
His body does later recover. The official episode 146 synopsis features Gon after that recovery, so saying that he “lost the rest of his life” as a settled final outcome would be inaccurate. Nor will this article turn the later questions surrounding his Nen into a claim of permanent loss or an impossibility of learning to use it again. [9]
If Hisoka imagines fighting a Gon who has grown stronger over the years, physical size and aura quantity would presumably be only part of the appeal.
- Accumulated combat experience
- Greater precision and versatility with Nen
- Judgment in reading an opponent’s ability
- Enough composure to respond to tactical exchanges
- Growth that continues beyond a single fight
These are the author’s proposed qualities of a mature opponent, not an official checklist supplied by Hisoka. The important distinction is that Gon’s transformation against Pitou is not equivalent to those years of accumulated development.
To return to the fruit metaphor: imagine waiting patiently for fruit to ripen, only for the entire tree to explode. A sudden leap in combat power is not necessarily the same thing as the opponent you hoped for growing into their potential.
Who would win: Hisoka or the transformed Gon?
They have never fought under those conditions, so there is no established result. If we place the greatest weight on the speed and destructive power shown, there is a reasonable case that Gon’s Pitou-fighting form would have a major advantage. That still does not justify a guaranteed win in a specified number of seconds, or an official ranking.
Hisoka’s strengths cannot be measured in aura quantity alone. They include inventive uses of Bungee Gum, reading abilities, exploiting terrain and distance, lying and provoking, and finding a route to victory even after being injured.
Ingenuity does not automatically bridge an enormous speed gap, however. If an attack arrives before a plan can be put into practice, there may be no chance to begin the tactical exchange. Conversely, declaring a hypothetical result without specifying starting distance, available information, preparation, or the transformation’s duration is also too simplistic.
The idea that Hisoka prefers dangerous opponents against whom he still has a possible route to victory is an interesting reading. It is not an established rule that he always avoids anyone too strong. We should not invent his reaction to witnessing Gon’s transformation, either.
Where do Chrollo and Illumi fit into this reading?
Hisoka’s fight with Chrollo is important when considering why his interests cannot be reduced to physical strength. In manga volume 34, they fight at Heavens Arena, where Chrollo combines multiple abilities with the conditions of the spectator-filled arena to corner Hisoka. The publisher’s official description confirms the matchup. [10]
Chrollo wins the fight. What we can take from it is that combinations of abilities, preparation, information, and use of the setting materially shape the outcome. The result alone does not prove that “they must be equals because Chrollo prepared so much,” or that “Hisoka would win without preparation.”
It remains reasonable to read Chrollo as appealing to Hisoka because he is an opponent whose methods must be deciphered, whose danger must be accepted, and against whom a path to victory must be found. He is a useful example for thinking about Hisoka’s desires, not evidence that the story defines a measurable “Chrollo level.”
Illumi also belongs in the comparison as someone whose ability Hisoka rates highly. But interest and admiration do not establish the outcome of a fight under equal conditions. Hisoka’s tastes cannot be turned into an objective ranking that includes Illumi and everyone else.
Thinking of Gon and his friends as fruit with promising futures, and Chrollo as a dish Hisoka already wants to reach for, makes the distinction easier to grasp. This, too, is a metaphor for understanding the character, not a schedule stating the order in which everyone will be hunted.
How can helping someone and wanting to fight them coexist?
Some enemies eliminate dangerous talent early. Hisoka can instead be read as someone who looks forward to watching talent he likes develop. Scenes in which he lets an opponent improve, or temporarily lends a hand, therefore do not necessarily contradict his character.
The key is not to treat “ally” and “enemy” as permanent job titles. Being able to work together in this particular contest is different from being someone who will protect your safety in the future. The official character profile likewise presents Hisoka as an unsettling magician interested in Gon and his friends, not as their guardian. [11]
Through the lens of training, the sequence seems to be: set an obstacle, observe their growth, demonstrate his own techniques, wait for them to become stronger, then fight. That final aim is precisely what makes even the help along the way feel uneasy.
GI is interesting because it allows competence and ethics to be assessed separately. Someone you cannot trust as a person can still make good decisions, coordinate effectively, and offer valuable help in a specific situation. That fact resists reducing the character to a simple good-or-evil label.
Dependable without being reassuring: Hisoka in GI
Hisoka’s help makes more sense as a moment when the appeal of fighting together overlaps with his interest in a future opponent than as evidence that friendship has reformed him. His contribution to the dodgeball match is real. There is no need to deny his competence.
But giving Hisoka credit for Wing’s teaching, treating transformed Gon as a guaranteed picture of his future, or turning the Chrollo fight into a universal power ranking would flatten what makes this interesting. It is worth distinguishing the actions we see from the motives we infer.
Hisoka is not a dangerous man who has become a good teacher. He is someone who can act like a remarkably helpful senior while retaining dangerous aims. His demonstrations may be brilliant, but then he appoints himself the opponent in the graduation exam. The final line of that syllabus is far too frightening.
References (13)
These primary sources establish official character descriptions, episode references, terminology, and where events fall in the story. Short synopses do not explain every scene or motive, and they do not endorse this article’s coaching metaphor, imagery, or hypothetical matchups as official conclusions. The scene analysis is criticism of the relevant story material; the links alone do not reproduce every line of dialogue or tactical detail. The linked pages also contain spoilers.
[1] Nippon TV: Episode 69, challenging Razor again
[2] Nippon TV: Episode 70, injuries and Gon’s plan
[3] Nippon TV: Episode 71, three-person teamwork and the outcome
[4] Nippon TV: Episode 29, Hisoka’s Nen barrier and Wing’s training
[5] Nippon TV: Episode 35, Gon versus Hisoka
[6] Nippon TV: Official glossary, Bungee Gum and Nen
[7] Nippon TV: Episode 131, Gon’s confrontation with Pitou
[8] Shueisha: HUNTER×HUNTER volume 31, saving the critically ill Gon
[9] Nippon TV: Episode 146, Gon after his recovery
[10] Shueisha: HUNTER×HUNTER volume 34, Hisoka versus Chrollo
